Switch-operating mechanism.



No. 892,838. PATENTED JULY 7, 1908.

H. F. HYMAN & G H. HAY.

SWITCH OPERATING MECHANISM. Q

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 19,1907.

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Allomey 0 HENRY F. HYMAN AND G H. BAY, OF HOUSTON, TEXAS.

SWITCH-OPERATING MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 7, 1908.

Application filed August 19, 1907. Serial No. 389,316.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, HENRY F. HYMAN and G H. HAY, citizens of the United States, and residents of Houston, in the State of Texas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Switch-Operating Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.

The object of the invention is to provide means operated by an approaching car for closing a switch which may have been left open, thus insuring a clear main line.

In the preferred construction which We have devised as an embodiment of the invention the switch is thrown open or closed by an ordinary switch stand, but there is a releasable latch interposed between the stand and the switch and this latch is retracted from a distance by the approaching car or locomotive, permitting the switch to close, if it has been left open, under the influence of a spring. The switch may be restored to operative connection with its stand or operating lever by simply moving the lever to position corresponding to a closed switch, permitting the latch to reconnect the switch with the stand.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is a plan of a track section including a switch and other necessary parts of the mechanism. Fig. 2 is a transverse section through so much of the switch and associated mechanism as is necessary to illustrate the invention, and, Fig. 3 is a fragmentary central longitudinal section of a portion of track showing the distant latch operating mechanism.

Reference numeral 1 indicates the switch points connected in the usual manner by a rod 2. A spring 3 acting between a collar or rod 2 and a stationary abutment urges the switch to closed position. At one end rod 2 is provided with a socket 4 in which fits the end of another rod 5 which may be termed for convenience, a link. Rod 2 has a hole 6 passing through the socket, and link 5 is provided with a hole 7 adapted ordinarily to register with hole 6. Link 5 is connected in any approved manner with lever 8 of a swigch stand by which the switch is operate Ordinarily holes 6 and 7 in socket 4 and link 5 are in register, and latch 9 asses through both, connecting rod 2 and ink 5 together so that they form an o )erative unit.

The latch is pivotally eonnecte to rod 2 and tends to enter the holes by influence of gravity. A spring 10 acting on a link 11 which I the chain.

engages the latch may also be provided, to insure the proper action of the latter.

The latch 18 disengaged from hole 7 by means of a bell-crank 12 pivotally mounted in a fixed support 13. One arm of the bellcrank is suitably shaped to engage the underside of the latch, and the other arm is connected with a chain 14 which passes around a pulley 15 mounted on a fixed support and along the track for a suitable distance in the direction in which the switch faces. At this point another bell-crank 16 is pivotally mounted between the rails. The bell-crank comprises a shaft 17, a cam-shaped arm 18, to be acted on by the car or locomotive, and another arm 19 connected with the end of The car or locomotive is provided with a roller 20, or other suitable de vice, to act on the cam shaped arm 18 of hell crank 16.

As the locomotive ap roaches the switch, if the switch be open, roller 20, or equivalent device carried by the locomotive, strikes arm 18 or bell crank 16, and through arm 19 pulls chain 14, which actuates bell-crank 12 and withdraws latch 9 from hole 7 in link 5, permitting the switch to close under the influence of its spring in the manner above 1described, and giving the train a clear main If desired, the switch rod 2 may be connected by suitable mechanism 21 to a semaphore or other signal, so arranged as to give the engineer an indication of the condition of the switch.

VVe claim: 4

An automatic switch closing device comprising a tie-bar connecting the points and having a socket, a link entering the socket, a switch lever connected to the link, registering holes in the link and socket, a latch pivoted to the tie-bar and having a hook adapted to enter the holes, a bell-crank carried by the tie-bar and having one arm engaging the latch, a chain connected to the other arm of the bell-crank, a device distant from the switch arranged to be acted on by a car and connected to the chain, and means normally tending to close the switch.

n. r. I-IYMAN. e H. HAY.

Witnesses W. B. SCHILLER, N. WOLF. 

